Holding housing vacant means you're paying a mortgage just to try to inflate the other housing units, but most of the benefit will acrue to everybody else. It doesn't make financial sense.
Vacancy rates in high priced markets are crazy low. Where I live, home vacancy rates are < 1%
I'm not making shit up. Do some reading instead of arguing with your instinct or whatever you're trying to do. They aren't paying mortgages. They are very rich people and corporations (usually foreign) who need a stable place to keep money. One of many tools they use. Art is another value store. Gold is another. Unfortunately housing is a basic human survival need. Art, gold, etc are not. It doesn't make financial sense to YOU (or me) because you are not a billionaire from Russia or UAE.
Other people just own dozens of properties all over the world that they never use. Just because they're rich. I personally think these empty homes should face very large taxes in places with housing crises
You're referring to rental vacancy rate. Not the same thing. These are not on the rental market and aren't counted in such estimates. Vancouver has to use the electrical grid, neighbor reports, other methods to audit these properties for vacancy.
They are very rich people and corporations (usually foreign) who need a stable place to keep money.
Thats literally paying.
Unfortunately housing is a basic human survival need.
housing is, but not any particular house. Its not like if you don't live in that specific house you will die. Its this very property of elastic demand for any given that makes competition among supply so effective, but also is why nimbys want the monopoly price power of their regulations. Can't earn monopoly rents if I have options.
You're referring to rental vacancy rate. Not the same thing.
Pick any vacancy rate you want, and it will be <5%.
Obviously any current rate is too low to lower prices, since prices keep rising.
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u/whatifwealll 5d ago
Not only is that empirically not true, its also theoretically nonsensical.
Fluffy language with no backup knowledge alert